


we bathe in the blood moon

by crucify (victimsoul)



Category: Bloodborne (Video Game), The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Bloodborne, Blood and Violence, Canon-Typical Violence, Established Relationship, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, canon-typical for both bloodborne and the magnus archives, the self indulgent bloodborne au no one asked for, wtgfs week
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:47:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23570302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/victimsoul/pseuds/crucify
Summary: The Healing Church has taken everything from Georgie. She will do anything to get it back.
Relationships: Georgie Barker & Jonathan Sims, Georgie Barker/Melanie King
Comments: 7
Kudos: 21
Collections: What the Girlfriends Week 2020





	1. we are born of the blood

**Author's Note:**

> this was written for what the girlfriends week! check out @wtgfsweek on twitter and tumblr!

The last day Georgie saw Jon was deceptively normal. The only thing special about it was that she saw Jon at all. Both of them tended to be far too busy to meet up often, and it was a long trek from Old Yharnam to the Cathedral Ward. This day, however, was important to Jon. It was the day they celebrated his promotion.

Despite his apprehension, Georgie had convinced Jon to invite his friends over to celebrate his invitation to the Healing Church’s School of Mensis. One of the highest echelons of the Healing Church, the School of Mensis was the biggest scholarly organization since the school at Byrgenwerth. It had been Jon’s dream to be invited for years, and Georgie supported him in his pursuits. The Healing Church was the most respected institution in Yharnam, thus there was no more prestigious position than the one Jon was offered as a researcher. 

At the dinner, Jon, Georgie, and their friends Basira and Daisy drank real alcoholic cocktails in a toast to Jon. Real alcohol was expensive and it was much cheaper to make cocktails out of blood, especially for three Healing Church employees, but Jon was willing to splurge in light of his promotion.

Georgie was the only member of her group of friends to not work for the Healing Church in some way; instead, she wrote political and philosophical essays to be published in Yharnam’s newspaper. As she walked home to Old Yharnam, she reflected on the institution all her friends were wrapped up in. She understood the appeal of the Church, but she remained slightly suspicious of it, although she would never dare voice those suspicions out loud. There was something in the way it had gained influence in Yharnam so quickly that rubbed Georgie the wrong way. Almost everyone in Yharnam was dependent on the Healing Church in some way or another, and she was wary of what they could do with that power. But, those were musings for her to keep to herself, not for her to write in her newspaper, which she should have been thinking about instead. When she got home she sat down to write the first draft of her column for the following week, some uninflammatory common sense piece denouncing Vilebloods. She sighed as she put her pen down and rubbed her temples. She wished she could write her real opinions and musings, but her editor would never allow it, so she ended up producing the same garbage every average writer did. It irritated her, but it paid the bills, so she continued.

“Hi baby. Working hard?” Melanie yawned and walked over to Georgie’s desk to kiss her on the cheek. Georgie looked up and smiled at her girlfriend, reaching out to wrap her arms around her waist. Melanie looked at her fondly and ruffled her hair, then kissed her on the top of her head. 

“You know it,” Georgie said, not letting go of her waist. “I’ll come to bed soon, I just have to finish this paragraph.”

Melanie laughed, “Alright. How was Jon by the way? I’m sorry I couldn’t make it.”

“He was good. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.” Georgie pulled Melanie’s face towards hers to kiss her gently on the lips. Melanie gave her two more kisses in return, then left for their bedroom. Georgie finished the paragraph she was writing, then followed her girlfriend to bed.

* * *

The last day Georgie saw Melanie was the day of one of the worst hunts in recent memory.

Melanie had dashed away with barely a goodbye when she heard the announcement that a hunt was on. Georgie watched as her girlfriend fled their house, leaving her plate of half eaten kedgeree behind her. Melanie was desperate to prove herself as a new Healing Church hunter, and sometimes she got so wrapped up in the adrenaline she forgot all other obligations. The hunt was intoxicating in that way.

Georgie had been on edge lately. It had been months since she had last been in contact with Jon, and her reservations about the Healing Church had only grown in his absence. She knew it was likely Jon had simply gotten caught up in his work and forgotten to write her back, but even when she finally decided to track him down in person, she arrived to find his house looking like no one had lived there in months. She didn’t know what to do; the School of Mensis was an extremely secretive organization, and most people outside of the Healing Church were not even aware of its existence. There was no way Georgie could look into their actions without arousing suspicion, and her contacts within the Healing Church had nothing to tell her. Not even Melanie, a Church hunter, knew anything about the School of Mensis’s actions. 

She was not happy that her girlfriend was doing the Church’s dirty work when the Church had likely taken her best friend away from her, but speaking ill of the church in Yharnam was akin to voicing a death wish. Especially around Melanie, who had been devoted to the Church ever since they were the only ones able to cure her father of the Ashen Blood. So Georgie kept silent as she watched her girlfriend come back from each hunt a different woman, more volatile and reactive than she had ever been. She sat and watched, arguing with herself internally over whether to confront her about it, until the day Melanie left for a hunt and did not return, and it was too late to ask her why.

* * *

When the Healing Church came to Old Yharnam, it was the final straw for Georgie. She watched from her workplace as her home burned to the ground. The area had been crawling with church hunters even outside of nights of the hunt lately, and the people of Old Yharnam were only getting sicker with the Ashen Blood. Georgie had been lucky to get out physically unscathed by both the disease and the hunters, but she mourned nonetheless. 

There was no doubt in her mind that the Healing Church had taken everything from her, and a plan was starting to form as she breathed in the ash blowing across the chasm from her home. She would take back whatever she could recover of what was taken from her. It was all she had left to do. She couldn’t rebuild Old Yharnam and she couldn’t look into the School of Mensis, so that left her with one option: She would get Melanie back.

She didn’t know where Melanie was, but she knew where the hunter _would_ be. When hunters were hired, they were assigned an area of Yharnam to take care of. If Melanie was anywhere, she would be taking care of the residential district of Cathedral Ward, near Jon’s house. Georgie would have to venture out on the night of the hunt, the night no Yharnamite would dare leave their home, if she wanted to find her girlfriend. 

It would take a lot of preparation to ensure she could take on any beasts she came across in her hunt for her girlfriend. And so, she prepared. She knew from Melanie how hunters operated and what supplies they needed to ensure they weren’t killed by the first beast they came across. She would not be going out with a wooden shield and pitchfork like the untrained self-described “hunters.” She was able to retrieve Melanie’s threaded cane and a pistol from the ashes of their shared home, and she waited for the hunt to come. They had been occurring more frequently lately as the beast population grew more quickly, so she did not have to wait long.

* * *

“Melanie!”

Georgie ran to the woman, dropping her weapons to pull her into an embrace, almost tackling the smaller woman to the ground. 

However, when she pulled back to look at her, she realized there was something off about her girlfriend. Her pupils looked like they had collapsed and she wasn’t melting into the hug as she normally would have, instead tensing as she was embraced.

Georgie’s eyes widened and she dodged backwards just as Melanie snarled and swung her cleaver right where Georgie’s stomach had been moments ago. Georgie scrambled to grab her pistol but held it at her side, unwilling to point a gun at her girlfriend but also unwilling to be left completely defenseless. 

Melanie advanced slowly, a darkness to her eyes that had never been there before. The violence she had committed showed in the hardness of her gaze, and there was little else there beside it. There was certainly no recognition there, no recognition that she had just tried to slice open her girlfriends’ stomach. Looking beyond the woman, Georgie saw the trail of corpses Melanie had left in her wake and felt sick at the brutality of it. Georgie staggered back, leaning against the stone wall of a nearby building to steady herself.

As she approached, Georgie called out in fear, “Melanie, Melanie, it’s _me_ , baby! Snap out of it!” and she saw Melanie falter for a moment, confusion crossing her features. Emboldened, Georgie took a step forward, still leaving a wide gap between them but closing the distance slightly. She decided to take a risk. 

“Come on Mel, it’s me, it’s Georgie!” Melanie didn’t let anyone other than Georgie call her Mel, so she knew it was dangerous to possibly provoke Melanie further if she really didn’t recognize her. But given her previous reaction, Georgie figured the risk was worth it, and it might help her girlfriend come back to herself again.

The risk seemed to pay off as Melanie lowered her cleaver and her eyes finally focused on Georgie’s face. She gasped and threw her cleaver to the side, running into Georgie’s open embrace. Georgie smiled and kissed the top of her head. “Come on. Let’s get you home.” Melanie mutely nodded and grabbed the hand Georgie offered her.

* * *

Georgie led her through the now-clear twists and turns of Cathedral Ward to Jon’s apartment. Jon had given her an extra key for emergencies, and she had been staying there since Old Yharnam had burned to the ground. She promised herself she would pay Jon back for it once she found him.

“Hold on. Why are we at Jon’s place?” Melanie asked once they reached it.

Georgie looked at her with concern. “You don’t know?”

Melanie swallowed and looked away. “While I was gone I wasn’t… I wasn’t.” Georgie let her leave it at that, deciding not to push her so soon after snapping her out of… Whatever the hunt had done to her. 

Georgie wrapped an arm around her shoulder as she led her up the stairs to Jon’s front door, letting them inside. Once in, she turned to secure the many locks typical of Yharnam doors, then led Melanie to the bedroom. Whatever had happened to her, wherever she’d been, it was night now and they were both exhausted. They could deal with it in the morning. She tossed Melanie a pair of her own pajamas, a couple sizes too big for the smaller woman and then changed into pajamas herself. Georgie climbed into bed and Melanie climbed into her arms, ready to experience the first peaceful sleep she would get since she had gone missing. Georgie felt her girlfriend shake with tears in her arms and simply held her quietly until they both fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was soooo self indulgent. please comment if you enjoyed (i will not beg for comments i will ask 11 times and thats it)


	2. made human by the blood

Melanie woke hyperventilating. She couldn’t hear anything over the sound of blood pounding in her ears. As she looked around her room to calm herself down, she panicked further when she realized not only could she barely see, but she also didn’t recognize any of the features of the room she woke up in. The window, which was on the wrong wall, revealed the Yharnam skyline instead of a view of the neighboring building. Every surface in the room was covered with volumes of books and dust motes swirled through the air, both things that would be out of place in the cozy room she shared with Georgie. 

Her lover’s arm around her waist grounded her. As she looked down at Georgie’s sleeping face, memories of last night and the past few weeks came rushing back to her. Georgie’s arm was anchoring her not only to the bed, but to the present moment as well, keeping her from immediately getting lost in the memories of her time separated from Georgie. She couldn’t remember much of it, especially the days right before Georgie found her, but what she could remember she wished she couldn’t.

_The wet heat of blood splattered on the exposed skin of her face. Her extended cleaver tore through beast after beast as she dispatched every poor fool unlucky enough to be outside on the night of the hunt. The adrenaline pumping through her body kept her moving, working on pure instinct as she spilled blood. When everything around her was dead, she examined her handiwork, satisfied with the viscera littering the ground. She paused as she heard wet, gasping breaths behind her, and turned to finish off whatever was still alive. She stalked over to the man-shaped beast on the ground holding on to its gaping stomach wound to keep blood and guts from spilling. It looked like a man and bled like a man, but if Melanie had learned anything from her training as a church hunter, it was that those were the most dangerous beasts of all. She used her saw to deftly slit its throat, putting it out of its misery._

She rubbed her eyes, dismissing the gruesome memories of her violence. 

“Melanie, honey, are you okay?” Georgie lifted her head off the pillow to look down at the woman sleeping in her arms, curled up like a cat. Melanie lifted her head to look up at her girlfriend through blurry eyes, then rested her head back on Georgie’s chest. 

“Yeah. Just a nightmare.”

“Get some rest, sweetie. We’ll talk about everything tomorrow.” 

Melanie closed her eyes and waited until she faded back into the sweet nothingness of sleep.

* * *

“Why didn’t you come home? You were gone for weeks.”

Melanie sat up from where she was leaning on Jon’s dining table and rubbed her eyes in a subconscious attempt to clear the fog of her memories. When she opened her eyes again, the room was still just as blurry as when she had woken up. “I didn’t… I never realized the hunt was over.” 

Georgie sat silently, waiting for her to continue. “Something comes over me when I hunt. I don’t know if it’s the blood or just the adrenaline or the act of… hunting itself. But it makes me… Georgie, what’s the difference between a person and a beast?”

Georgie looked at her like she grew a second head. “You should know that better than anyone. Beasts are… Beasts, you know? With fur and claws and everything.”

Flashes of the hunt sprang to the forefront of Melanie’s mind. Flashes of men coming at her with the familiar look of blooddrunkenness in their eyes, of beasts that cried out when hit, taking a moment too long to strike back. “I’m not sure it’s that simple anymore. I’ve… seen things out there, Georgie. I’ve _been_ things out there. I’ve had to kill hunters before, and I don’t know if that makes me the beast or them.”

Georgie walked around the table to wrap Melanie in a warm embrace. “I think I’d know if my girlfriend was a beast, baby.”

Melanie let out an empty chuckle into Georgie’s shoulder. Georgie held her tighter. Despite the warmth and love Melanie felt in that embrace, it did nothing to dispel the doubts swirling around in her head. 

Georgie pulled back, but held onto Melanie’s hands. “I hate to do anything but let you rest at this point but… Do you know what happened to the School of Mensis?”

Melanie furrowed her eyebrows. “I have no idea what those freaks are up to. They should still be in Yahar’gul, though.”

Georgie’s eyes hardened. She was a journalist. She had heard about Yahar’gul, and what she had heard wasn’t good. “Are you sure?”

“I dunno where else they would be. The Healing Church gave them Yahar’gul to run.”

Georgie let go of Melanie’s hands and looked off to the side. “Oh, what has Jon gotten himself into this time…”

Melanie looked at her with something just shy of concern. “Why, what did they do to Yahar’gul?”

“I don’t know. That’s the problem. No one who goes to Yahar’gul comes back, ever. I’ve had colleagues who have tried to investigate it…” Georgie trailed off. “I guess if it’s run by a subset of the Healing Church, that explains why they never cared.”

Melanie opened her mouth to defend the Healing Church before remembering what Georgie said they did to their home. She knew Old Yharnam, the Ashen Blood was bad but the people with it were just sick, not beastly. There was no reason for the cruelty of burning the whole neighborhood down. She could only hope her father had been asleep and had felt none of the pain. 

While she was thinking, Georgie had gotten up and was holding the threaded cane she had been using the night she had found Melanie. Melanie’s eyes widened when she realized what Georgie was holding. “Georgie, don’t tell me you’re going to go try to find Jon.”

Georgie looked at her apologetically. “He’s gotten himself into something bigger than himself this time. I have to at least try.”

Melanie rolled her eyes, but she knew it would be fruitless to argue with Georgie on this. Her strong sense of loyalty towards her friends was part of the reason she had fallen in love with her, after all. She stood up and put her hand around the cane in Georgie’s hand. “If you’re going, I’m coming with you.”

Georgie looked at her with wide eyes and shook her head. “No! I can’t ask you to do that. You just came home for the first time in weeks, you need to rest. Plus, I know how you feel about Jon.”

Melanie looked her straight in the eye. Georgie cringed slightly at the damage blooddrunkenness had done to Melanie’s pupils. “You are not going somewhere you might not return from,” Melanie moved her hand over the hand Georgie was using to hold the cane, “Without me.”

Tears welled up in Georgie’s eyes and she wrapped her arms around Melanie’s neck. She didn’t need words to convey how thankful she was that she wouldn’t have to take on the Healing Church by herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there will hopefully be one more chapter of this? Btw i will not beg for comments i will ask 11 times and thats it


End file.
